Levi could not return his father’s hug. Not because he didn’t want to but because he could not comprehend so quickly what was happening: the sign on the door, the tall, well dressed, clean and neatly groomed man, all so different from what he had known all his life and what he had expected. He smelled clean. He even had something like perfume on. The man was his father. He knew that, but…
The but would have to wait. Levi would figure that out later. His daddy was hugging him. HIS DADDY WAS HUGGING HIM! He didn’t want to think about how all this came about right now. This is what he’d yearned for. This is what he never believed could happen but it was happening. His daddy was hugging him and when he fully comprehended that, he returned the hug with all the longing of months of fear and confusion and, he knew now, years of wishing. His tears of joy and relief mingled with his father’s.
There were other eyes glistening with tears in that room but there was also the sense that those eyes were intruding into something very intimate and very private. A father and son, for the first time in their lives, were exchanging emotion that had been held but buried for the life time of the boy. Josh, Elizabeth and Dodd had enjoyed the exhilaration of the surprise. That should have been shared. But the first moments of the tenderness of their new relationship were only for father and son.
Josh went into his office. Elizabeth and Dodd quietly and unobtrusively, walking arm-in-arm, left the glow of the love that filled that room for the bright glow of the early autumn sun. Dodd was especially alive. Elizabeth had told him that she had written letters to all those she wanted in attendance at her wedding to determine a date that would fit their work demands. Since many were ranchers, she needed to know when most could find a convenient lull. She knew well that certain seasons were demanding and the work presented could not be ignored, regardless of how good the friend, how dear the loved one, or how important the event. Dodd knew, and probably so did Elizabeth, that middle to late October was a slow time for ranchers but the etiquette of cattle country demanded inquiry. Tentatively they had set Saturday, October fifteenth.
Dodd was ecstatic, as was Elizabeth, but she was also somewhat embarrassed by her former ambivalence—but relieved that it turned out to be so foolish and unimportant a thing. She apologized over and over to Dodd. He only hugged her to him and told her of his own uncertainties. He told her of that first morning he was in Carson City and assured her that he was comforted by the fact that men were not the only ones that love turned into fools.
They walked, Elizabeth thought aimlessly, in the bliss of their love, their plans and their togetherness. They had missed each other and just being together was almost euphoric. They were not walking in the direction of either Elizabeth’s home or of Mrs. Looney’s boarding house. Elizabeth gave it no thought. Being with Dodd anywhere was fine with her, but for Dodd there was design in what seemed like idle wandering.
As soon as Elizabeth had written of her certainty, Dodd had purchased a house they had both admired and which Elizabeth had indicated she would love to have for her own. Dodd would not presume to furnish it without Elizabeth but he had purchased a bed and some sitting room furniture. He saw no need to both own a house and rent a room. He had moved into the house but still took his meals at Mrs. Looney’s.
As they walked past the house, Elizabeth again commented on how cozy she thought she could make it. It had the look of a cottage but was surprisingly roomy inside. A growing family would not necessitate a move.
Elizabeth saw curtains and her heart sank but she knew that it was her fault that the house had gotten away. Her gasp of disappointment was a stronger motivation than Dodd’s love for teasing and surprises. He really wanted to stretch this out and enjoy the anticipation but the tears forming in her eyes altered his plans.
“What’s the matter?”
“Our house, Dodd. It’s been sold”
“Oh, that, of course it’s been sold.” He dangled the key in front of her. “To us.” She shrieked out her delight and hugged him, and arm in arm they entered the house that was to be their home for fifty-eight years.
Elizabeth bubbled with excitement as they walked from room to room. In her imagination she furnished each room as they walked, placing a frilly curtain here, a family heirloom there as she informed Dodd of each visualized possibility. Dodd, too, was caught up in her exhilaration. Luke had given each of the sons items from their boyhood home that had particular sentimental value to each, and Dodd, in his mind and conversation, furnished his sons’ room with the beds and other treasured items of his childhood.
Elizabeth was pleasantly surprised at Dodd’s choice of sitting room furniture. His taste appeared remarkably like hers. Although the room was sparsely furnished—no rug, and no pictures, plants or knickknacks—it had a welcoming, relaxing air. They sat together on the settee and for several minutes said nothing. Both were too consumed with the moment. This was their home, the sanctuary in which they would build their life together.
There was no longer any doubt in Elizabeth. She was ecstatically happy. She had never been able to react to unbounded joy simply with words, smiles, laugher or tears. To her, joy was an all-consuming physical thing that required the use of her entire being, her body and all her powers of communication. As a young child it had been running, jumping and shouts of glee. Now, however, in deference to her maturity, she kissed Dodd firmly, then skipped and pirouetted around the room and came back and kissed him again. She had never known joy quite like this, so words and sound failed her. She moved in graceful silence, her eurhythmics almost a dance. Her dance and her joy were so enthralling that Dodd, without conscious decision, found himself moving with her. They held each other in a gentle embrace and glided, whirled and promenaded to the rhythm and melody of the music of their souls.
Life offers extremely rare moments in which one finds oneself in an almost altered state of being, a kind of ethereal world, a perfect world with no pain or problem, only joy and perfect peace. When there, the temptation is strong to renounce reality and stay forever in that world that is beautiful but not completely real. It was, therefore, with great effort that Dodd and Elizabeth brought themselves back to the world of reality but they did not return empty-handed. Having once been there, one brings back an understanding that harsh reality could never give, an understanding that can only be experienced, never explained. That understanding does not change the person but it does change perception, and it makes reality more bearable, living less confusing, and the future less a concern.
But even in the world of reality, Elizabeth knew that she had information that would add to Dodd’s happiness. They sat again on the settee, and she took from her handbag Dodd’s copy of the final draft of the new corporate structure and operational procedure. As Dodd read, his face—indeed, his entire being—became one big smile. The dilemma that weighed so heavily upon him was not resolved but that portion which the Forrests controlled was. Little children would no longer be placed in the dangerous and unhealthy mines. The new operational procedures even included more than Dodd had hoped. He was elated that the company would offer incentive for families to keep their children in school. It was a start that made him very happy, and Elizabeth found that his happiness enriched her own.
But, as always, Dodd’s happiness was muted. The Forrests would no longer be guilty of what Dodd knew to be a great offense against children, but the broader, national problem remained. He was extremely happy for what had been done and he thanked Elizabeth for the part he knew she had played in bringing about the change, but his response was what it always was at times of incomplete victory. “It’s a start and I thank you for it, Elizabeth, my dear, but it’s only a start.”
Dodd did have reason to be somewhat encouraged about the broader problem, at least so far as child labor was concerned. He had known for some time about the National Labor Union, established in 1866. The organization was interested in broad social reform and political objectives, one of which was the establishment of a Cabinet level Department of Labor. The group was also pushing for an unheard of eight hour work day. While nothing he had read indicated they were specifically interested in children, Dodd felt their efforts would call attention to working conditions in general and eventually prick the public conscience regarding the exploitation of children.
What had Dodd really excited, however, was something about which he knew very little. Information about it was just beginning to drift west. The Knights of Labor, established in Philadelphia in early 1869, had, as one of its primary reasons for existence, the abolition of child labor. That was only one small facet of the problem, but if people of position and power in the east were beginning to address that problem, Dodd was sure that, within his lifetime, the American people whose passion for human dignity had abolished slavery would be outraged when the life conditions of many children were called to national attention. Dodd was sure that that passion and outrage would insist upon just and humane laws regarding the treatment of children. Dodd believed in his heart that before he died there would be no more Petes or Ervins or Austins or Revas. Probably more from hope than conviction, he believed that just as those children and Becky had, all American children would find justice, love, safety and security. He would not stop working toward those ends, but at least he now knew he was not working alone.
Copyright © 2003 Gordon L. Klopfenstein